Bella came home from her trip with her mom. She was a little sad because she knew it was probably the last time she'd see her. She was going to be changed soon and she had at least a year as a newborn before she could stand to be around humans. It must be a lot like going to your own funeral; she was waving goodbye to an age gone past, already knowing that she wasn't long for this world and that she might as well get her hugs and last words in while she can. I had no idea what she was going to do, to be honest. She didn't want to fake any violent crimes against herself but how could she just fall off the planet? She had two loving parents. I guess we were all going to have to hash that out later.
In the meantime, Bella walked a little straighter nowadays. She had been nervous before the wedding but she was simply beaming now. And that day she had asserted herself and talked to Edward on her terms sealed the deal. She was just… different. In a good way; she wasn't so meek and sheepish anymore.
A storm was rolling in that night and Alice insisted on a game of baseball. I had no idea what one had to do with the other but Bella clued me in. She told me the Cullens played baseball when it stormed because the thunder masked the cracking of bats. Now it made sense.
Rose and I waited outside on the porch as the storm blew in from the Pacific. Overhead the clouds were dark and moved quickly. Around 11PM the thunder began clapping. We looked at each other the same moment and smiled. We raced in the house just as Alice came down the stairs – seeing the thunder in her mind's eye.
The boys were going to stay back and dig out the baseball gear from the garage. Alice, Rose, Esme, Bella and I took Emmett's Jeep and headed towards some location undisclosed by Alice. We headed out of Forks and eventually turned onto a muddy, uneven path worn into the woods. We hopped out and began our trek through the woods. According to Esme it was only about five minutes away so there was no need to run.
We were talking and joking. Rosalie was recounting some of the better arguments that inevitably broke out among the boys in these types of instances. It was remarkable how quickly such gentlemen could revert to childlike behavior. We were almost bent with laughter – and I'd say about halfway to our destination – when I caught a whiff of someone. It was another one of our kind for sure, but not a Cullen. And no one I'd ever met. I turned immediately and snarled – out of instinct. Rose and Esme caught the scent that moment and turned with me.
For a moment I saw a human form at least fifty yards away. She paused, like she was in mid run. I saw her take a deep breath and then continue on. "Irina?" I heard Esme mutter.
I turned back to the group. "Who was that?"
"Irina from Denali?" Rose asked Esme.
"Yes, it certainly smelled like her."
"Oops. Sorry," I apologized. I'd just snapped at extended family, "What's she doing so far from Alaska? Wait… I never met her. I met Kate and Tanya and Eleazar. No Irina."
"No, you wouldn't have," Rose shook her head. And for the first time Bella spoke up, "The pack killed her mate; she's still upset and—"
Bella's explanation was cut off by a sharp intake of air from Alice. Her eyes glazed over her mouth hung partially open. Bella braced her shoulders, "Alice, what do you see?" she asked firmly.
"I… I see stone… lots of stone… and red… others like us… it's… oh my god…" she trailed off and for the next few moments her eyes flew back and forth, from side to side, like she was watching a tennis match. Then suddenly she closed them and breathed deep again. She opened her eyes wide and looked for a long moment at Bella before turning to the rest of us.
"Irina," she whispered, "she's going to Italy."
"What?" Rose asked deathly quiet.
"What did you see Alice?" Esme asked calmly. Bella just remained still as stone, taking in all the happenings.
"She was just on an extended hunt," Alice explained, "but she caught Bella's scent. She knows you and Edward are married. She thinks she's defying Volturi law by remaining human. She's going to tell them."
I just stared mouth agape with Rose. Esme continued to play the voice of reason, "What else Alice? What else?"
"They'll come," she whispered in a sad and quiet voice, "They won't let Bella remain as is. They'll leave a body here in Forks or take a vampire back to Volterra."
"They're coming for me," Bella whispered for the first time since Alice's vision. "They want me dead or for themselves?"
"I think so," Alice muttered ruefully. "Remember, Aro asked you to join him once. He thinks you will be powerful as a vampire."
"So he's going to use Irina's case as an excuse to take me away?" Bella asked. She was trying to remain calm but the hysterics were slowly closing in on her, we could tell.
"Let's get back to the car," Esme said. "Baseball's cancelled for tonight. Rosalie, call Carlisle and the boys when we get back to the Jeep."
Esme drove us home while Alice sat shotgun, writing and drawing everything she'd seen in her vision. Rose was on the phone talking rapid fire, first to Carlisle and then Emmett. She wouldn't tell them what happened, insisting it could and should wait until they got home but assured them that no one was hurt. I sat between Rose and Bella, holding Bella's hand. Her grip didn't hurt me but I could tell she would've torn something out of place if she were holding a human hand. The silent tears had started and she kept saying, "They can't take me… I won't let them…"
I didn't know what to do. How could I ever possibly assure her that wasn't going to happen? Alice had seen it. All I could do was hold her hand and rub her back. I told her it would be okay, that things could change and we wouldn't let anyone take her. It was the worst feeling I'd ever experienced. Knowing in advance that I would lose a family member but being powerless to stop it.
We made it home in record time. Esme handled Emmett's Jeep like a NASCAR driver. We got Bella out of the car and into the house. She immediately attached herself to Edward who – like the rest of the boys – was completely oblivious to what was happening beyond the fact that "no one was hurt". In a moment he read the blaring neon signs in all our minds and he just shut down. His face became like stone and he simply steered Bella to the couch and sat down with her.
We spent the next hour in explanations. First off, I got Ye Olde Cullen Family History lesson. Irina's mate – Laurent I believe they said, they only mentioned his name once – had wandered into the Forks area ahead of Victoria, to see if he could find Bella. Apparently the newborn army was at least Plan C. The Cullens weren't actually around and that was the sole motivation behind Victoria's attack: Edward killed her mate, she wanted his. Let me just say that this was news to me. I mean, I know that after I sobered up off the human blood and got to know the Cullens that Victoria hadn't been telling us the truth. Duh. But I only just realized that I was explicitly learning the truth now. So Bella was helpless and the pack doing leaping out of nowhere like somekind of Batman movie chased him down and tore him to bits.
The only problem was, Laurent was one of those half repented types that you never know which side to place him on. True he was going suck Bella dry, but he had mated with one of the vegetarian Denali sisters from up north. She didn't come to the wedding because she was upset – especially since we were still keeping company with the LaPush pack. She was carrying a serious grudge about the whole ordeal and was going to use this newfound knowledge of hers for payback to get Bella. Mate for mate. This must be some longstanding tradition of vengeance with our kind.
Anyway, Rose, Esme and I explained how we'd seen Irina. Alice explained her vision and what she saw coming. She saw the Volturi coming but she couldn't see specifically who. The details surrounding their arrival were all foggy. She knew it would be a fair few. And she kept repeating that same phrase: they'll leave a body here in Forks or take a vampire back to Volterra.
According to the Cullens, Aro was interested in some of the family joining the Volturi. Their gifts intrigued him and he wanted to add them to his collection. When I asked where Bella came into play, why he'd want her, they explained her immunity. Bella was immune to the powers of the mind. Edward couldn't read her thoughts and Jane – the pint-sized torturer – had no affect either. Aro believed this would translate into her immortal life and that she could be an asset to the Volturi. And now – because she hadn't been changed, as decreed by the three brothers – they would use this opportunity to take her back to Volterra and transform her themselves under the guise of 'punishment'.
My head was spinning with all this as Jasper used his mind voodoo to calm Bella down and she quickly dozed off.
"Alice told Jane when they were here last spring that the date has been set," Rose recalled. "Their coming… I don't know. It just makes their conquest seem too obvious."
"But who's to say that will stop them," Jasper countered. "No one's going to stand in their way. They're the ruling class and if they demand something they won't walk away from it without a fight."
"No," Esme said clearly. "No fighting. If we end up in a battle it's not going to end well for either side. If that's what it comes to, then so be it, but we need to try other forms of diplomacy first. Our goal is to get everyone out of this alive."
"So what do we do?" I asked. "Can't we just change her now?"
"No," Edward spoke for the first time since we'd come home. "She's not ready and this is not the type of environment she should wake up to. The Volturi are more likely to leave her with us if she's still – what they consider – a useless human. They're less inclined to make the effort of breaking in a new immortal themselves. The Volturi doesn't do newcomers unless they have to."
He was quiet for a moment, "And even if they did take her as a newborn, she'd learn and grow up on their diet of vengeance and human blood. It's not a good to acquire your skills in that type of environment. No, she's more valuable as a vampire. We keep her human."
"So now we plan," Carlisle said.
We spent the remainder of the night going over arguments to use against the Volturi's case. It was hard to make a defense when we couldn't outright state the Volturi's motives. Even though we both knew what was going on, apparently that was a big no.
Our reasoning centered on a few main arguments. Bella's date of change was still set. It had not been changed but the Volturi simply arrived before it came to pass. Nothing had been changed and there were no acts of defiance. Secondly, was the basis that Bella would be useless to them for a fair amount of time. Like Edward explained, if they changed her she would be a newborn with many years of acclimating before she was any use to them at all.
That's about where our arguments ran out. Like I said, it was hard when you couldn't call them on their shit. Our next act was to plan the fight. We didn't want it to come to violence but there was no way we could be unprepared. Alice could see at least ten figures in the fog of her vision. Ten people that would come to Forks in the next few days. She was already having flashes of Irina on her way to Europe. It was decided that we'd all be present – Bella included. In the event that negotiations turned sour, Edward would take her on the run. They'd have a car packed and take off to some indiscriminate location outside Washington. They'd keep going until they heard from one of us, or went long enough without word from us to assume the outcome of the battle.
Carlisle made the point to call the pack but the family was about divided in that regard. Emmett, Rose and Jasper really didn't want to get them involved. Edward, Esme and Alice thought it would be for the best.
Eventually Carlisle decided, "Look, we're about to have a heavy influx of our kind to the area and the least we can do is let the pack know. Their job is to protect their land and if we don't warn them about this it could do serious damage to our already thin rapport with each other."
"We'll let them know. If they don't want to get involved fine – it's their choice – but they need to be given some information."
Carlisle put the call in to Jacob and Sam and told us that the pack would be present and out of sight for the meeting. In the event that peaceful negotiations failed they would join us. With this knowledge the rest of us passed time fidgeting on the main floor. We all remained either in the kitchen or the living room, while Bella slept on the couch. We would sit and stare for a while before getting up and finding a new place to do the exact same thing. Occasionally, we'd exchange near silent words with those around us.
Bella woke up that morning and demanded to talk to Edward alone. I could faintly here her yelling outside. Apparently she wanted to be changed – immediately – but Edward wasn't having any of it. I think she felt horrible, she thought she'd dragged the family into this. I thought it was rather ironic. This small human girl was willing to offer all her frail body had to protect a pack of vampires against their own kind.
Alice would have periodic visions and give us status updates. For a while it was mostly centered around Irina. She would be on a plane, in an airport in Italy. She eventually saw her explaining to Aro, Marcus and Caius how she saw the Cullen clan - in flagrant disregard for Volturi law – continuing to keep a human. And with that the visiting party finally materialized in her mind's eye. Aro, Marcus, Caius, Jane, Alec, Demetri, Felix, Heidi, Renata, Afton and Santiago. Eleven of them, including the top dogs. Fan-freaking-tastic.
The next day came and went with no real change. Certain pack mates were in and out of the house periodically and time moved in bursts of speed and listlessness. It was five to eight in the morning, I looked down and was playing absently with my shirt hem for a moment and it was one in the afternoon. Other times I would stare at the clock and swear it was broken; it would move only incrementally for hours. I noticed this pattern in the rest of the family as well.
Carlisle would phase between productivity whenever Alice had a vision or one of the Quileute boys would stop by and shiftlessness with rest of us in between. There was nothing we could do but wait.
As the sun set on that evening Alice stood up and uttered quietly, "They're on their way. We've got a few hours. And with that we silently broke off to leave. Edward took Bella and Carlisle's Aston Martin to the end of the drive just out of sight, so they could make a quick exit if need be.
The rest of ran through the woods towards the spot Alice had seen the Volturi arriving in. She told me it was the same spot where we were going to have our baseball game. Our track quickly ran across the very dirt road we'd parked Emmett's Jeep on not two days ago and I quickly recognized our path. I could see the clearing ahead and we stopped before we reached it.
The pack had been running non-stop patrol since we'd first talked to them and now we were waiting for their arrival. One of them would've caught the scent of a dozen hellions ghosting through the woods in silence. It wasn't long before more than a dozen wolves – bigger than bears – slowly materialized out of the surrounding forest like men of the trees. I only recognized Jacob, but I could assume that the black wolf at the front was Sam. He nodded to Carlisle and they took their places among the trees and ferns a fair distance away from the clearing.
The rest of us stepped into the clearing and Edward arrived with Bella not moments later. We ran over every scenario we could think of one last time before Alice's eyes became distant once more. "They're coming." Like an army we assumed our positions. We created a delicate half circle. Carlisle was in the middle flanked by Jasper and Emmett. Rose and Esme on each side of them. Alice and I were on each end and Edward stood with Bella just behind Carlisle, Jasper and Emmett. And with that the distinct forms of the Volterra party began to appear like wraiths out of the mist. They approached from the other side of the clearing and their formation countered our own. They stopped about fifty yards from us and only Aro, Marcus and Caius – I assumed from their obvious age – came further, along with three others. I recognized the child-like blond by her demonic grin and her torturing of me, not six months ago.
"Carlisle," said the vampire in the middle. His hair was long and jet-black. He appeared old, his skin reminded me of tissue paper. "I see you were expecting us?"
"No, Aro," Carlisle returned politely, "Alice here, simply saw you coming and we thought we ought to come and greet you."
"Why thank you, Carlisle. You know good manners are never lost on me."
"Although, I must admit I am surprised to see you here. What brings you and such a large party our small place in the world?" Carlisle was playing up ignorance first. If we could just tiptoe around each other with disgusting amounts of politeness and end it that way, it would be best. But I wasn't really counting on it; I don't know about anyone else.
"I'm afraid a bit of bad news," Aro frowned. "It has been brought to our attention that you continue to keep company with a human." Aro had this way of talking that was half a wheeze, but it wasn't a weak emphysemic wheeze. It was this older than time, scary as hell, you never know what kind of sick test he's going to pull on you next wheeze. It was creepy.
"Yes," Carlisle nodded in agreement, "Bella is still human. However, if you recall your visit last spring we assured you that the date for her transformation was set. It's unfortunate that you had not arrived a few short months after this. You would've been able to meet the newest member of our family."
"It's been far too long already, Carlisle," Aro told him picking his head up a little higher. "She knows of us and our world and despite her bond with your son there is nothing to stop her from exposing us. I will not have you - in your unending kindness – risk the uncovering of our world."
"I can assure you that this has never been a problem—"
"Enough," Aro interrupted firmly. "Carlisle, you know I have always been fond of you; however I cannot allow this continue. The Volturi does not make it a habit to negotiate with its subordinates. For too long have I allowed you to bend the rules. Too long have I allowed your coven to grow unchecked. But this is where I must intervene. You are blending the worlds and risking us all. It is time you and your family pay the price for your lax adherence to our mandates."
"Either we leave a corpse here with you or we take an immortal back to Italy with us."
And that statement jarred me for a moment. I'd been hearing it off and on from Alice the past two days but in the context of Bella. Aro just laid it out there as a generality and that really changed the way I saw this whole situation. He didn't necessarily want Bella. He just wanted someone.
Carlisle began to speak but I couldn't hear him as thoughts began running through my head at the speed of light. And in that instant it all became clear to me. It was obvious and plain and I should have seen it way beforehand.
"Wait," I interrupted Carlisle's rebuttal. All eyes flashed to my tinny soprano. The Volturi and the Cullens because I wasn't exactly scheduled to speak. I looked around for a second before stepping out of line. I slowly made my way to the center of the field between Carlisle and Aro. "Take me instead."